The invention concerns a method for laying military bridges over an obstacle in a combat zone with the use of at least one laying vehicle.
The laying of military bridges over obstacles that are within the range of fire of the enemy is a difficult and above all a dangerous undertaking. Originally, it was necessary for combat engineers to lay bridges for overcoming obstacles on site. This resulted in heavy losses. Therefore, several decades ago a method for laying bridges of this type was developed, in which a tank that had been converted to a laying vehicle moved a bridge that had been broken down into several components to the edge of the obstacle and then laid it over the obstacle by cantilever construction. These bridges were capable of spanning obstacles up to 28 m wide. The operating crew was basically able to stay seated in the tank, although it was sometimes necessary to leave the tank for short periods of time to correct malfunctions.
Bridge systems of this type are now categorized under the general term of “assault bridges”. Due to the necessary armor plating of these vehicles, systems for active protection are dispensed with for the benefit of the useful load requirements for the bridge and laying vehicle, and passive protection is reduced. On the other hand, bridges without direct exposure to enemy action are referred to as “tactical bridges” or “support bridges”. Systems of this type usually have a greater capacity with respect to the clear span and thus a greater weight. Therefore, it makes sense to use only systems with no protection for transport.
All assault bridges have in common that the laying operation must be activated and controlled by one or more soldiers at the site. Therefore, these soldiers are still exposed to enemy fire.
Another problem in the development of military bridges is transportability. There are usually limitations with respect to useful load, trailer load, total weight, and dimensions. Armored vehicles place high demands on the bridge system, since they themselves already take up a good deal of the available weight limits and structural dimensions. Therefore, the bridges were designed in such a way that they could be folded up or pushed together for transport. A number of designs were also developed for this. However, these designs have in common the fact that they complicate the design and slow the laying operation.
Analogously, the same considerations also apply if the bridge is transported by water or air. Here too, it is necessary to comply with the respective transport profiles, and in the case of air transport, it is also necessary to maintain the limited permissible safe loads and transport weights.